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Malnutrition

Malnutrition

When children suffer from acute malnutrition, their immune systems are so impaired that the risk of death is greatly increased. Common diseases like a respiratory infection or gastroenteritis can very quickly lead to complications and possibly death. MSF has released the Starved For Attention report calling for food aid to change and for a nutrient rich diet to be made available to children. South Asia, the Sahel and the Horn of Africa are the most alarming hotspots for child malnutrition and mortality. Wasting and other forms of acute malnutrition often appear among children in seasonal cycles, especially during the "hunger gap" period between harvests. The vast majority of the children suffering from acute malnutrition are...
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MSF Expands Operations in Response to Malnutrition in West and Central Africa’s Sahel Region

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Sahel: the veiled side of nutritional emergency

23 April 2012
A new nutritional crisis is brewing in the Sahel region. Repeated warnings and appeals to the public's generosity remind us of it every day. But what do these calls actually reveal?   That more than 600 children are dying every day from the consequences of lack of food in the Sahel.   That more than 500,000 severely malnourished children were treated in 2011 in eight Sahelian countries of West Africa.     That the seasonal peak of malnutrition, which corresponds to the hunger season, will probably be more serious than usual in certain regions, where contingent factors – climatic, political and economic – will exacerbate poverty, lack of access to health care and the inequitable distribution of food...
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Chad: Villages organise themselves against malnutrition

13 March 2012
Chad. Mahamad Adam is one of the community agents supported by MSF.
Mahamad Adam is one of the community agents supported by MSF. He monitors changes in the weight of children in his village by measuring the circumference of their upper arm.
MSF has been present in the Hadjer Lamis region in the west of Chad since 2010, and is now bracing itself for the next peak of malnutrition.   Mahamad Adam is one of the community agents supported by MSF. He monitors changes in the weight of children in his village by measuring the circumference of their upper arm. Photo: Simon Petite/MSF   Mahamad Adam stands proudly in front of the store under his charge. A single room between four walls of dried mud and eaves made of cut branches, which provide a little shade. Inside are stocks of enriched peanut paste, a product that has proven to be effective for tackling child malnutrition.   Mahamad Adam spends several hours a week looking for...
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A Month in Focus - April 2012

11 April 2012
Month in Focus April 2012
DRC, Chad, Paraguay, Uzbekistan, Haiti
DR Congo – An alarming surge in malaria Chad – On the brink of a peak in malnutrition Paraguay – The scourge of the vinchuca Uzbekistan – Tuberculose shows resistance Haiti – Medical certificates for cholera patients
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Sahel: MSF's dual response to an expected nutritional crisis

02 April 2012
Sahel, food crisis, MSF, Mauritania
MSF has opened a new project in Mauritania in the Hodh Ech Chargui Region, in Fassala and Mbéré camps in the South East of Mauritania.
The annual "hunger season" seems likely to be particularly serious in the Sahel this year, and a few  particular regions may face acute nutritional crises in the coming months. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is therefore expanding its nutritional activities to address the seasonal “peak” in malnutrition rates, while also developing longer-term approaches it can integrate into its regular programs. A food crisis has been declared in the Sahelian Band of West Africa. UNICEF has estimated that up to 15 million people in six countries in the region are living with moderate or acute food insecurity.  In a region where global acute childhood malnutrition rates...
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Chad faces twin emergencies of acute malnutrition and meningitis

28 March 2012
MSF staff carrying out a meningitis vaccination campaign in Chad
Chad. MSF staff carrying out a meningitis vaccination campaign using the MenAfriVac vaccine, which protects for far longer than other meningitis vaccines
Immediate response needed to save lives and prevent deeper health crisis, says MSF   N’Djamena - Severe acute malnutrition in parts of Chad’s Sahel belt has reached emergency levels and requires immediate life-saving intervention, according to the humanitarian agency Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF). In addition, an urgent response is also needed now to contain an expanding meningitis outbreak.  Chad: MSF staff carrying out a meningitis vaccination campaign in December 2011, using the MenAfriVac vaccine, which protects for far longer than other meningitis vaccines. Photo: Marja Scholten “Now we can see clearly that, in some parts of Chad, there are already very alarming rates of malnutrition among...
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Somalia: Measles Takes its Toll

06 March 2012
Somalia: A four-year-old boy suffering from measles and malnutrition
A four-year-old boy suffering from measles and malnutrition waits for his medicine in Banadir hospital in Mogadishu.
Measles is sweeping unchecked through parts of southern Somalia. The disease is highly contagious and unvaccinated children are at great risk, especially if they are also malnourished. The war in southern Somalia is a key factor contributing to ongoing widespread malnutrition, low vaccination coverage and lack of access to healthcare services. All of these factors aggravate the spread and severity of diseases like measles. In some MSF programmes measles cases have sharply increased in recent days and weeks, many of them in severe condition.       A four-year-old boy suffering from measles and malnutrition waits for his medicine in Banadir hospital in Mogadishu. Photo: Martina...
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Ethiopia: "There is still so much to improve

29 February 2012
Ethiopia
Ethiopia: MSF provides primary health care, psycho social care, runs a nutrition program, reproductive health program and an out Patient Department.
In early 2011, there were some 40,000 Somali refugees in Ethiopia. By the end of 2011, that number had more than tripled, to 142,000, following a mass exodus triggered by a terrible drought that killed crops and herds in a country already wracked by 20 years of conflict. The numbers alone, however, do not tell much about the days, or even weeks, Somalis spend walking to reach and cross the border with barely any food or water. It does not reveal the dire malnutrition affecting the children in the camps, nor does it express the effort made by humanitarian agencies to fight hunger and exclusion and reduce emergency levels of child mortality. José Luis Dvorzak, a Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (...
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MSF response in Somalia, 2011: Full report & Summary

29 December 2011
Somalia
Somalia Accountability report 2011
The humanitarian situation in Somalia this year saw major food shortages – which caused severe malnutrition, large population displacement and outbreaks of cholera and measles. Download the report 'Assisting the Somali population affected by the humanitarian crisis of 2011'  As a result, MSF – which has been working in Somalia since 1991 – began significantly scaling up its medical response in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya from April 2011. This was largely possible due to substantial financial support from private donors around the world.   The report ‘Assisting the Somali population affected by the humanitarian crisis of 2011’ ...
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by Dr. Radut.